Hungary would like to become an opinion maker centre in the fight against the persecution of Christians, Minister of Human Capacities Zoltán Balog spoke about this on the programme 180 minutes of Kossuth Rádió on Thursday morning.

The Minister said: however strange it may sound, Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world.

Two thirds of breaches, murders and attacks committed on religious grounds are carried out against Christians in the world today, and “it is the shame of the 21st century that their physical annihilation has become a factual and realistic possibility”, he added.

He remarked: a few countries apart, Europe “is shutting its eyes to this”.

Hungary, the Minister stressed, has a moral obligation as well as a vested interest in helping persecuted Christians, for instance, through the construction of churches or with scholarship programmes targeting young persecuted Christians.

In contrast to all reports to the contrary effect, the people do not want to leave their homes, they want to live where they have lived for two thousand years, he stated.

Mr Balog remarked that this was also confirmed by the church leaders visiting Hungary who said that Europe should not encourage persecuted Christians to leave their homeland.

As he said, they must be helped to remain in their native land because if we do not help them with this, “they will come here”, and “that will create a problem for Hungary, and for Europe as well”.

The Minister highlighted: in contrast to “bashful”, general humanitarian assistance, they believe that “we must seek out the groups which are closest to us, for whom we may provide genuine and actual help, and with whom we have genuine contact”.

This is why the Hungarian Government set up an office for the Deputy State Secretary responsible for helping persecuted Christians within the system of state administration, which is “something unique”. Additionally, they also adopt a scientific approach to the issue and support research institutes.

He further pointed out that an international consultation will be held in the autumn on the issue of the fight against the persecution of Christians, to which all interested parties will be invited. At the same time, they would also like the attendees to promote the Hungarian programmes more widely. He mentioned as an example the scholarship programme for young persecuted Christians where some four hundred students applied for a hundred grants.

(Ministry of Human Capacities/MTI)